Hey folks, Harry here... My Manchester buddy Reni is here with one helluva fucked up film to tell ya about. SUICIDE CIRCLE. If you haven't seen it, do so. The film is a beautiful and unique snowflake made of blood and corrupted innocence. If you like twisted sick flicks, you'll like this... So if you know Reni... you know he's a sick flick trick, easy to turn! Hehehee... Here ya go...
Harry,
You recommended Suicide Circle a few weeks ago. I'm glad you did. Asian Cinema is streets of anything else right now. I'm sorted of disturbed too... But not as much as I thought I would.
I'll keep it short and spoiler free (except for some of the kills...)
Suicide Circle is easily one of the best Jap Horror Mysteries since the orignal Ringu. It's gory, tragic, clever. It also contains the most startling opening sequence you're ever likely to see, with the mass suicide of 54 school girls holding hands and jumping straight into a Tokyo - bound express train. Not only are the results gruesome beyond words, we are then treated to a cut away segment at a nearby hospital, played out like the mid section in Halloween 2. It's a sweet opening. Sweet enough to make Argento blush.
Tokyo is in the grip of mass suicide. School kids throwing themselves of buildings. Comedians stabbing themselves to death infront of audiences. Daughters burning their faces in kitchen ovens. And in the midst of all this, the tv stations seem interested only in showing audiences the latest videos from teen girl band Dessert. In constant rotation since they're lyrics of death and suicide seem to be flavour of the month with both the young and old.
The cops, played by Ryo Ishibashi (Audition) and Masatoshi Nagase (Mystery Train), at a loss to explain things, soon learn that the source of these suicides may be found in a mysterious web site which records the rising body count using red dots for Girls. White dots for Boys.
It's mental stuff. Haunting. If every generation has something to complain about then at least Sion Sono's film offers his one a solution. To completely understand yourself and the people that you love, you must first die. There is nothing to be afraid of. Do it freely. Everything will be explained afterwards. Even the two cops seem tempted. ( It's wrong talking about remakes. But I imagined this kind of character work in a Hollywood version. The nearest comparison is probably Seven. Harvey Keitel and Phil Seymour Hoffman maybe.)
Even so it's central theme of trends and media obession make Suicide Club much scarier than a Killer of Deadly Sins. Aside from one sequence involving a Charlie Manson wannabe ( which reminded me of Phantom of Paradise) the scale of what these people are up against is much more insuperable.
Sono's direction is terriffic. The early tip off which leads the police to stand guard at the railway station plays like the Estuary killing in Jaws. And the Hospital suicide is downright eerie. It's a wonderful balance of skills. The performances are good too. It's a nice of mix of adults ( largely symapthetic) and kids ( blindly obssessed with fame/death). Shouldn't this be the other way around?
Maybe not.
If the 90's left us feeling a little unloved, then at least we have Suicide Circle. The best way to describe it? Part mystery, part horror, part Nirvana album.
Reni
